Education and work experience

2006-2010, University of Science and Technology Beijing, BSc
2010-2013, Beijing Normal University, MSc
2014-2019, National University of Singapore, PhD
2019 - , Peking University, Postdocs

Research Interests

Hua’s research interest is to investigate signals and their molecular mechanisms involved in intra- and inter-specific communication, integrating techniques from spectrophotometry and behavioural experiments, to bioinformatics. Hua is specifically fascinated by how visual signal affects the process of sexual selection and natural selection, and the underlying genetic mechanism.

Current research projects

Biological mimicry is a vibrant topic in evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology. Animal mimics unpalatable model to avoid predation (Batesian mimicry), or pretends to be harmless to increase predation efficiency (Aggressive mimicry), that both forms contribute to increasing the organism’s fitness. Behavioural mimicry, an important component of visual signal-based mimicry, received very litter attention, while plenty of studies focused on static characteristics such as shape and colour. Hua is now exploring the fitness consequences and molecular mechanisms of behavioural mimicry using jumping spiders as the study system, which aims to provide empirical evidence for investigating the origin and genetic basis of behavioural mimicry, and to improve our understanding of adaptive evolution of traits under natural selection.